I Have Missed Him So Much

Shocked was an understatement of what Mireille was feeling at the moment. Loads of questions rushed into her head, so much that she could not note out one of the questions.

Dante was standing right in front of her, her sketchbook in his right hand, raised up just slightly above his head. Even in the dark, Mireille could clearly see that handsome face that she had missed so much.

She wanted to jump on him and hug him so tightly but she held herself back from doing so. She had no idea how she was supposed to react to his sudden appearance in her home.

Without another word from any of them, Dante walked over to the light switch and turned on the lights. His gaze fell on Mireille's face and he felt his heart warm up.

She still looked ravishingly beautiful with her dark hair splaying down her shoulders and her hazel eyes staring at his with a mixture of emotions in them. Emotions he could not figure out yet.

Why had she hidden the fact that their child was alive? No, why had she lied to him in the first place? Was she that scared of him and wanted to run away so much that she could tell such lies to him?

"What are you doing in my home, Mr. Romano?" Mireille finally spoke up, her voice a bit shaky.

Dante picked up her handbag from the couch and stretched it out to her.

"My handbag!" Mireille gasped and snatched it from him.

"Did you steal this?!"

"You think I'd stoop so low to steal your handbag? No, I don't want to steal anything from you. I tried stealing your heart but that didn't turn out so well, did it?" Dante said, letting his gaze drop down to her stomach.

Being self aware by his gaze, Mireille gasped and covered her stomach with her handbag.

"Do you hate me this much, Mireille?" Dante questioned while Mireille's gaze fell to the floor.

"You hate me so much that you lied to me that you lost our baby and ran away from me?" Dante questioned.

"That... That is not what happened."

"Then what happened? Why was I left thinking for over three months that our baby was gone only for me to find out this morning that our baby is alive?"

Mireille shut her eyes tightly, emotions surging through her. She recalled all the words James had said to her and pulled herself together with those words.

This was for her baby.

"It's not our baby, Dante. It's my baby." She stated firmly and ignoring her words totally, Dante walked closer to her, stopping right in front of her and bending over to her height.

"Do you take delight in making me miserable?" He asked, taking in her features.

Heavens! He had missed every single bit of her.

"Wh-what the hell are you saying?" Mireille tried to look away from him as she felt her stomach tightening but Dante held her by the chin and made her look at him.

"I am saying that you leaving me left me miserable and you know that. And you know very well that the only reason I let go was because I felt like I killed our child. I have been at my worse for three months, Mireille!"

"You almost killed our child! And you almost killed me too. Please leave my home, Mr. Romano. I have nothing with you anymore."

"You have my ring, you have our child and you still fucking have my heart and you tell me we have nothing anymore?" Dante asked and Mireille moved away from him, not being able to stand so close to him anymore. She feared her true emotions would get into the way if she continued to stand so close to him.

"If your ring is what you want, then please take it but as for my child, you are no longer the father. This child is mine alone. I won't give my child a father like you."

Dante's brows squinted.

"A father like me?"

"Yes, Dante. You are in dirty business and you have the heart of a... Of a monster. I don't want my child to grow up with such a father." she walked over to her bed and emptied her handbag.

She picked the ring amongst the other items and turned to face Dante, putting on the bravest font she could muster.

"Here you go. Have your ring and leave, Dante." her voice cracked as she tried not to let even a tear slide down her cheeks in front of him.

Dante looked at her hand holding the ring towards him and then looked at her face once more.

"I really want to know why you hid our child from me." he demanded.

"I have no explanations to offer to you." Mireille insisted.

"No explanations to offer?! Do you know the guilt I lived with for the past three months?! Do you know for how long I laid in a pile of your things, just wanting to have you back but not wanting to go after you cause I thought I made us lose our child?! Do you know for how long I was haunted with nightmares because of this? Do you even know how much I missed you?! Do you know any of that, Mireille?!"

"I don't care, Dante!!" Mireille screamed back at him, tears rolling down.

"You lied to me! We were together for months but you didn't tell me about what you were involved in!"

"Because I feared this happening! Because I feared that you would see me as a beast once you found that out and I was right. Because that is what you now see me as, isn't that right?"

"I... I don't want to talk about any of this, Dante. I only want to protect my child now! I don't care about any other thing anymore! So just leave because you are not getting me back and you are not getting my child too." she stated firmly.

"No, Princess. I will get my Princess back and we will both have our child."

"Even if I do not love you anymore?" Mireille tried to say that as coldly as she could.

Dante let out a small chuckle before raising the sketchbook up again.

"It definitely doesn't look like you do not love me anymore. The dress you wore when I proposed to you is also in the middle of your closet. It seems to me that you are still very much in love with me and trust me, I am still in love with you too. Hell! I can never fall out of love with you, Princess." he walked over to her as Mireille quietened down, sniffling back tears gently.

He reached his hand to her face, cupping her face and lifting her head up to meet with his gaze. Her skin felt soft, just like he recalled it to be.

Dante felt an electrifying feeling, just touching her skin lightly.

"What do you see when you look at me? Do you see Dante, the one who is in love with you? Or do you see Dante Romano, the one who is a beast who killed his own father?"

Mireille's heart tightened as her hand seemed to develop a life of their own. She raised it to his face, slowly until her right hand touched his face gently.

"I see.... I see you, Dante." the words left her mouth as his eyes held onto hers as if in an enchantment.

Without a word, Dante's hand on her face slid to her stomach and he rubbed her bump for a short while before getting down on his knees, all these while not breaking the eye contact.

He leaned in and kissed on her bump. Mireille's lips parted in a shaky breath. It felt good having Dante meet with their child once more.

'Danger. Dante is danger for you and for your child' the words repeated in her head but she could not push him away from herself.

'Just let him. You will push him away right after this' she said to herself and watched as Dante rose back up to his feet.

"Princess." he mumbled the name and pulled her into a hug.

'Alright. This is enough. You should push him away now' she said to herself but she could not.

She had missed him too much. She had missed his warmth and his cologne, she had missed his hard body pressing into hers. She had missed the way his arms wrapped around her.

Instead of pushing him off, Mireille found herself snuggling close to him instead.

'Heavens! I have missed him so much!'